


Twin High-Maintenance Machines

by spuffyduds



Category: due South
Genre: 1000-3000 words, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-24
Updated: 2010-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-06 16:11:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spuffyduds/pseuds/spuffyduds





	Twin High-Maintenance Machines

The moment Ray and Vecchio become friends is one of those, whaddyacallit, fulcrums. Because it's also the moment when Ray comes really close to beating the crap out of Vecchio in the middle of the station and getting himself fired.

Vecchio stops by Ray's new desk (because Ray's old desk is Vecchio's new desk because it was Vecchio's old desk before, and Ray is _just_ getting over _that_) and asks him if he maybe wants to rent a two-car garage space together.

"Splitting it's way less than getting a one-car place apiece," Vecchio says, jabbing a finger at the Tribune classifieds. "And you can't be excited about parking yours in _your_ neighborhood."

"_Hey,_" Ray says, but without any real heat, because, yeah, crap neighborhood.

"And there's a worktop and a pegboard for tools," Vecchio says. "The new Riv needs a lot of work, and I can't get shit done at the house without a toddler trying to eat the lugnuts."

Ray snorts but he takes the newspaper out of Vecchio's hand, studies it. Huh. That _is_ a good deal.

"Maybe," he says. "Why the hell you keep buying the same car, anyway? I mean, if you were to use your keen detectiving skills at all on the history of you and that make and model, I think you would have to conclude that it's _cursed_."

Vecchio shrugs and...blushes, what the hell? "It's just...it's stupid, I know, but I have all these good memories, of me and my wife in that car. Listening to the radio, necking, sometimes more..."

He's getting kind of _misty_ looking.

Ray is going to kill him. Ray is going to kill him _several times_.

And when he thinks about it later Ray realizes he should have known what was going on in that conversation, because of course Vecchio didn't even _have_ a Riv while he had Stella. But right that second all Ray can think is, this bastard is standing here at the desk he _exiled_ me to, smiling at me and talking about _fucking my wife in his car_.

Ray lunges across the desk and gets Vecchio by the shirt with one hand, cocks the other fist back, this is going to be the most satisfying nose-breaking in history, and Vecchio's eyes and mouth go round and he says, "What--OH! Whoa! Not _that_ wife!"

"What?"

"Not yours! The one that was just MINE!"

Ray drops his fist, but hangs onto Vecchio's shirt, he's not sure why.

"Well, not _just_ mine," Vecchio says. "She's married to a dentist now. Nice guy."

Ray blinks at him.

"He gives me a discount on a standard cleaning," Vecchio says, and grins, and for some reason that cracks Ray up. And makes this the stupidest almost-fight Ray has ever been in, and there have been quite a few.

Ray lets go of Vecchio's shirt, drops into his chair and laughs for a while, and then says, yeah, the garage sounds good.

**************************************

They get a year lease, and for the first few months it _is_ good. They both drive pool cars for work, and Vecchio _had_ a lot to say about how they're gonna use the _good_ cars to pick up women, but it turns out that "needs a lot of work" was the understatement of the century. He has to get the Riv towed _to_ the garage, and it needs a total overhaul and an act of God to get anywhere _near_ street legal.

Ray takes pity on Vecchio and ends up spending most of his off hours helping out with the Riv. Which is cool, actually, because Ray's always liked getting under the hood, and it really is a pretty sweet car, or is gonna be. Not that he'd tell Vecchio that. And they trade all their crazy Fraser stories, so that's fun.

Ray takes breaks from helping with the Riv to wax the GTO, and occasionally he takes it out for a spin, just to keep things from seizing up. Usually Vecchio goes with, because what the hell, he's there, and they wind up at a bar throwing darts or shooting pool. Vecchio is _slightly_ better than Ray at pool, but Ray cleans his clock at darts. Which makes Vecchio spout some bullshit about how obviously Ray has more experience playing with _little_ toys, so Ray just throws a trip-twenty and flips him off. Good times.

A few months in, though, things start to get strange. The garage gets a lot less comfortable, for one thing, as summer hits. But Ray was _expecting_ that; it's a hazard of cars as a hobby, you just strip down to a tank and gym shorts and deal with it. And you get used to having oil all over your face from where you forget and try to wipe the sweat off when your hands are filthy.

The weird thing, though, what Ray wasn't expecting, is that Vecchio starts to get a whole lot less...efficient. He started out Mr. High-Productivity, getting a ton of work done every time they were there and razzing Ray for talking all the time and taking too many smoke breaks. But as the weather heats up it starts to seem like Ray's doing all the work and every time he looks up Vecchio's just _standing_ there, with a wrench or something in his hand but not _doing_ anything. Just staring at Ray.

Ray just grouses at him the first few times it happens--"What, I'm your mechanic now, Vecchio? I don't remember getting _paid_ for this, you wanna maybe _participate_?" and Vecchio blinks and gets back to work.

But after it keeps happening for a couple of weeks Ray starts to freak out. The last time anybody _stared_ at him that much it was Stella in their last, very bad year, and it wasn't a good stare; it was a "How did I end up with this life with this guy?" stare.

He can't tell if that's the kind of stare Vecchio's got going, but he doesn't know what the hell else it _could_ be, and Jesus, he cannot deal with having somebody stare at him because they're wishing like hell he wasn't _there_, not again.

So one stinking hot evening, when he looks up for the fifth time to find Vecchio just staring, again, a bolt dangling from one hand, he snaps.

"Jesus, Vecchio, what _is_ this?" he says. "You want me gone, I'll get gone."

Vecchio drops the bolt into the engine. Noisily. "What?" he says.

"Just buy me out, the last six months rent. Or get somebody else to--shouldn't be hard, it's a good price."

"What?"

"You're trying to glare me out of here, right? What, you can't just _talk_ to me?" Ray says. "Look, I don't wanna be here if you don't want me here, okay?" and Jesus that sounded totally pathetic and his voice is getting weird.

He crosses his arms and tries to get his own glare going. "I been thinking about getting out of here anyway," he lies, and fishes around for a reason; glances at the GTO and comes up with one.

"It's been a sweet deal for _you_, getting all this work done," he says, "but the Goat's just _sitting_ here. What's the point in having something that pretty around if you never _do_ anything with it?"

Vecchio puts his hands over his face and kind of _moans_, "Oh, _Jesus_." And then.

Then things get really weird. Because Vecchio _jumps_ him, is just right there _on_ him all of a sudden, fuck Ray hadn't realized he was _that_ pissed off, and Ray tries to get his arms up and shove Vecchio away but he kind of loses track of that plan in the middle of it, because he suddenly realizes that, no, Vecchio _isn't_ actually chokeholding or kidney-punching him. What Vecchio is doing is kissing him.

_Hard_, and like he _means_ it, and he's shoving Ray backwards until Ray's back hits the corrugated-metal wall with a gong noise. Ray says, "Oof!" and Vecchio takes the opportunity to shove right on in there with his tongue.

Ray doesn't do anything for a minute. Just stands there with Vecchio's tongue in his mouth, and Vecchio pushing against him so hard the wall ridges are hurting his back, and Vecchio pressing, _oh_, a serious hard-on up against him. Ray can't manage to do a damn thing except think, "Huh, this is really NOT what I thought was happening."

And then he notices that he's pressing back against Vecchio, and that happy things are happening with his own dick.

This is a serious fucking surprise, and Ray should probably take a few minutes to think about this bizarre development, but it feels so good that instead he says, "Mmmmf!" around Vecchio's tongue and just _goes_ with it.

They kiss, and kiss, and goddamn Vecchio is _skilled_ at this, and they're nudging against each other in rhythm, and they're both just in thin shorts so that's good, good, but it's even better when Ray slides down the wall and Vecchio follows him down, moaning. Because then Vecchio slides Ray's shorts down a little and gets his hand on Ray's cock and squeezes and pulls and he's breathing in Ray's ear and whispering "So good, you look so good," and then Ray's coming.

Ray lies there for a minute, just staring at the ceiling, because--how is his life so weird, still? He thought it would normal up some after Fraser moved north. But man--he ended up dunked in, thrown through, covered with plenty of freaky shit while he was partnered with Fraser, but never once did he find himself lying in an oil slick on concrete with come all over his stomach.

_Lots_ of come, because while he's just lying there Vecchio stretches out on top of him and grinds into his hip and adds to the mess, groaning in Ray's ear the whole time.

When he's done he just slumps down onto Ray, relaxes his full weight onto him and drops his head on Ray's shoulder. Which would probably feel great in a bed, in a bedroom with air conditioning, but in a broiling hot garage, on a concrete floor, with Ray having basically no padding to start with, it gets uncomfortable pretty fast.

Ray doesn't complain, though. After coming that hard it would just seem kinda...rude. _Fraser would disapprove_, he thinks, and snorts.

Vecchio raises his head and just stares at Ray some more, and Ray can't figure out now how he ever mistook that look for a "Please don't be here" look. Because it isn't.

Vecchio gets a hand in Ray's hair and shakes his head a little.

"I don't want to split the garage rent with anybody else," he says. "Dumbass."

And Ray says, "Okay."

 

\--END--


End file.
